Contact Info

Research Summary

Dolores Malaspina MD, MSPH is the Anita and Joseph Steckler Professor of Psychiatry at NYU and the former chairman of the NYU Department of Psychiatry.

She is the Director of a Research Division in the Department of Psychiatry, Institute for Social and Psychiatric Initiatives (InSPIRES). InSPIRES takes a cross-disciplinary approach to the prevention, early detection, treatment and cure of the social impairments at the core of conditions such as depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, personality disorder and aggressive behavior . They study the complex interplay of genetics with biology, environmental factors and life-course experiences. InSPIRES researchers have the unparalleled ability to interrelate relevant advances from a wide range of scientific fields.

Currently, Dr. Malaspina's main research interest is the comparative effectiveness of managing risk factors for cardiovascular disease and death vs. medication management of the relevant autonomic nervous system pathways with experimental therapeutics in persons with severe mental illness. She plans a pilot randomized controlled trial in this research area funded by the NYU-HHC Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Her goal is to build a comprehensive cardiovascular management program based at Bellevue Hospital for persons with psychiatric illness and to conduct Cost Effectiveness Research centered around health decisions affecting mentally ill urban underserved communities. She is working with a multidisciplinary team to bring these goals to fruition.

Dr. Malaspina's research has been continually funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) for the last 25 years. She has authored more than 200 scientific papers and serves on several boards that conduct scientific reviews of grant applications and review scientific manuscripts for publication. She is an award winning mentor, training the next generation of psychiatric research scientists. She is currently a member of the DSM 5 workgroup which is redefining the criteria for psychiatric diagnoses. She has won numerous awards and honors and co-hosts a weekly radio show on Psychiatry for the Sirius/XM satellite radio channel for "Doctor Radio".